Interview with Jeffrey Smith of GHash.IO

GHash.IO, the mining pool that almost created a 51% attack back in January, recently announced some big changes, including a Scrypt mining pool that allows customers to mine Litecoin, Dogecoin, Auroracoin and Feathercoin.

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GHash.IO, the mining pool that almost created a 51% attack back in January, recently announced some big changes, including a Scrypt mining pool that allows customers to mine Litecoin, Dogecoin, Auroracoin and Feathercoin.

We spoke with the company’s chief information officer, Jeffrey Smith, over the weekend.

Cointelegraph: What can we expect to see with this recent expansion into Scrypt mining?

Jeffrey Smith: First of all, we think that Litecoin is a promising virtual currency, and we would like to show our support to the whole Litecoin community and give all Litecoin miners the ability to mine on the No. 1 mining pool, Ghash.IO.

Our second step will be adding Litecoins to our cloud mining on CEX.IO, as every user on CEX.IO is requesting this feature.

CT: What are your predictions regarding altcoin mining for the near term?

JS: That is a really good question. We strongly believe in virtual currencies, which are slowly but surely taking over financial aspects of people’s lives. We started by mining Bitcoin, then we added NMC, DVC and IXC as merged mining.

Since then, we put a lot of effort into implementing Scrypt mining, so the next logical step will be configuring a multipool, giving our users the convenience of mining various currencies, depending on each currency’s profitability.

We keep up-to-date with trends in virtual currencies, so if a novel currency emerges that instantly wins attention in the community, we will head in that direction, as well.

CT: Do you expect that some of the Bitcoin miners who use your pool will move on to pooled mining of these other currencies?

JS: Without a doubt. As the No. 1 mining pool, we endeavor to provide the best pooled mining service for absolutely no cost. Our users will surely use this opportunity to try Scrypt mining, as well.

CT: What currencies do you find the most promising these days?

JS: Bitcoin is the most promising. We think it laid a foundation for other coins. Litecoin is a close second. It has a very strong community and potential. We also love Dogecoin. We like the idea behind it and the way they Dogecoin works.

None of the currencies are perfect right now, but we constantly need to move forward, inventing and re-inventing virtual currency for all people.

CT: What about for your personally? Is working with altcoins just a part of your job, or do you use them in your daily life?

JS: We believe that every coin is money that has a number of uses. In order for them to work, all we need is two parties to be able to send and accept them.

We constantly promote all the cryptocurrencies we believe in and trust. That’s why we try using altcoins whenever we can.

We’d like to see cryptocurrencies even more integrated in everyday life. We need to be able to use them to buy morning coffee, to purchase things on eBay, to donate to the best projects on Kickstarter and so on.

As one of our interns said, “Once you go crypto, you can never go back."